<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>oh hear it scream by nonbinarywithaknife (littleboxes)</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25006546">oh hear it scream</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleboxes/pseuds/nonbinarywithaknife'>nonbinarywithaknife (littleboxes)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>dimension 20 [33]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dimension 20 (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Drowning Mention, Fear of Thunderstorms, Gen, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Neglect, Introspection, Religion</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 05:07:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>846</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25006546</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleboxes/pseuds/nonbinarywithaknife</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Bad Kids and thunderstorms.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Cathilda &amp; Fabian Aramais Seacaster, Digby Thistlespring &amp; Gorgug Thistlespring, Figueroth Faeth &amp; Gilear Faeth, Figueroth Faeth &amp; Sandralynn Faeth, Gorgug Thistlespring &amp; Wilma Thistlespring, Kristen Applebees &amp; Religion</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>dimension 20 [33]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1706107</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>109</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Fics For Rin</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>oh hear it scream</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>abbi mrtheinsatiable made me think about the bad kids and thunderstorms and i wrote a whole fic in the tags and then thought. huh. you could make a fic outta that and pasted it into a gdoc and then tumblr ate half of it and i was very glad id saved it. anyway. ta da<br/>also the title is from control by shake shake go which i listened to on repeat while writing this because the lyrics dont really fit but the Vibe does</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Adaine isn’t scared of storms. Storms are the least of your worries in the Abernant household.</p><p> </p><p>Fabian. Fabian who is scared of storms- except he’s <em> not</em>, okay, he’s the <em> son </em> of Bill Seacaster, the greatest <em> pirate </em> of all time! Bill Seacaster has never been afraid of anything in his life! Pirates can’t be afraid of storms! That’s just <em> stupid</em>!</p><p>(Except. When the thunder roars and the lightning cracks and Bill is out doing business like he always is and Hallariel is too drunk and too busy being in her sensory deprivation egg, Fabian will bury himself in Cathilda’s arms and she’ll sit with him through the storm.</p><p>She will smell like freshly baked cookies and lemon-scented air freshener and her hands will be calloused from work- and long hours wielding twin blades, but he won’t know that yet- and she will tell him stories her mother told her and that will be how Fabian learns halfling. During dark nights when Cathilda’s lilting voice is something to focus on rather than the storm’s rumbling.)</p><p> </p><p>Riz. Riz who is scared of storms because he still remembers the day the man in the suit came to their apartment, remembers with clarity he wishes youth had buried, how the man described the storm his father died in. (Riz wasn’t supposed to be hiding behind the couch he was supposed to be in bed but Riz has always been <em> curious</em>-)</p><p>Riz has always had a vivid imagination. He thinks about how his dad must have felt, the ship breaking under him, drowning in a sea there’s no way to breach because the rain beats down so heavily there is no up or down and there’s no air left to breathe.</p><p>It isn’t logical to be afraid of storms! He’s on land! He won’t drown!</p><p>(But his area of town has never had very good storm drains, and when the storms get really bad the sidewalks flood, and goblins are very short-)</p><p>(Riz doesn’t like walking in the rain.)</p><p>(When he’s at home and the storms come through he turns on their shitty tv as loud as it will go, even though he knows the neighbors will complain, to drown out the sound.) (When Sklonda is home with him, trying to catch a rare extra hour of sleep, she won’t complain about the noise. She’ll cover her ears with a pillow and not think about the sound a ship makes when the wood breaks.)</p><p> </p><p>Fig. Fig who hates the darkness, the endless, echoing black.</p><p>When she is younger, Gilear is the one who holds her and braids her hair up and down and up and down, until she’s so busy telling him how he’s doing it wrong to remember the storm outside.</p><p>And after her horns come in? After the yelling and the divorce and her rebellion-</p><p>Fig is still afraid of storms. But when Sandra Lynn tries to comfort her she is pushed away- Fig isn’t a <em> baby</em>, she doesn’t need Sandra Lynn’s <em> comfort</em>, she’s <em> fine</em>; she picks up her bass and decides she’ll simply need to be louder than the storm-</p><p> </p><p>Gorgug. Gorgug who learned one day in class that when lightning strikes in thunderstorms it usually strikes whatever’s the quickest path to the ground; who learns that this is why you’re not supposed to hide under trees when there’s a storm; and he looks at his home and he looks at himself-</p><p>No matter how much Digby and Wilma reassure him that their tree has been storm-proofed as much as a tree can be- (<em>But are you sure? </em> Gorgug asks, so little and already so much bigger than them-) and that the lightning won’t strike him, Gorgug still tries to flatten himself down when he sees the light flash outside his window.</p><p>Digby and Wilma narrow their eyes and glare up at the storm and bring Gorgug into their workshop.</p><p>They pull on their rubber gloves and hand a bigger pair to Gorgug.</p><p>Their workshop is shorter than the tree! And everyone knows lightning can’t strike rubber- that’s a scientific fact!</p><p>(Gorgug doesn’t know if that’s true or not but by the time the storm has passed he’s got an armful of metal flowers and he’s too busy wondering where he’s going to put them all to question it.)</p><p> </p><p>Kristen. Kristen who sits in the pews of her family’s Helioic church, and listens to Pastor Amelia bellow about the woe a storm brings-</p><p>How the darkened skies are a sign of Helio’s displeasure-</p><p>How you should spend your time inside during a storm praying for forgiveness-</p><p>Kristen kneels and prays and wonders if maybe Helio is mad at <em> her</em>.</p><p>She watches from her bedroom as lightning strikes the tree in their yard and wonders if Helio is sending her a warning or if the clouds merely blocked his aim.</p><p>She doesn’t tell her parents about her fears. She's Helio’s chosen, after all- she isn’t supposed to have doubts or fears or worries about her place in Helio's cornfields. She’s just supposed to be enough. (But what if she isn’t?)</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>